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The Ancient Mars Variety Show

Written by Melissa Rice, Professor of Planetary Science at Western Washington University

Perseverance accomplished something unusual this week: abrading two dramatically different rocks within the span of a few days. While exploring the Vernodden area along Jezero crater’s rim, the rover has been studying what might be “megablocks,” a variety of ancient crustal materials with clues to Mars’ early geological history.

The target “Peachflya,” abraded on sol 1618, revealed clasts of different mineral compositions. This could mean the rock is a breccia formed from fragments of even older materials that were broken up, transported, and cemented together – possibly during an impact in Mars’ distant past.

Just meters away, the target “Klorne” was abraded on sol 1623 and it tells a completely different story. The fresh surface is greenish, with some dark spots and white veins—evidence of significant chemical alteration. Klorne’s green hue is consistent with the mineral serpentine, and reminiscent of Perseverance’s abrasion of “Serpentine Lake” back on sol 1404.

Next, Perseverance will examine the “Monacofjellet” megablock, which shows yet another distinct spectral signature. Each of these ancient fragments can help the Science Team reconstruct the complex geological processes that shaped early Mars billions of years ago.

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NASA Selects Blue Origin to Deliver VIPER Rover to Moon’s South Pole

As part of the agency’s Artemis campaign, NASA has awarded Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, a CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) task order with an option to deliver a rover to the Moon’s South Pole region. NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) will search for volatile resources, such as ice, on the lunar surface and collect science data to support future exploration at the Moon and Mars.

“NASA is leading the world in exploring more of the Moon than ever before, and this delivery is just one of many ways we’re leveraging U.S. industry to support a long-term American presence on the lunar surface,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “Our rover will explore the extreme environment of the lunar South Pole, traveling to small, permanently shadowed regions to help inform future landing sites for our astronauts and better understand the Moon’s environment – important insights for sustaining humans over longer missions, as America leads our future in space.”

The CLPS task order has a total potential value of $190 million. This is the second CLPS lunar delivery awarded to Blue Origin. Their first delivery – using their Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) robotic lander – is targeted for launch later this year to deliver NASA’s Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies and Laser Retroreflective Array payloads to the Moon’s South Pole region.

With this new award, Blue Origin will deliver VIPER to the lunar surface in late 2027, using a second Blue Moon MK1 lander, which is in production. NASA previously canceled the VIPER project and has since explored alternative approaches to achieve the agency’s goals of mapping potential off-planet resources, like water.

“NASA is committed to studying and exploring the Moon, including learning more about water on the lunar surface, to help determine how we can harness local resources for future human exploration,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We’ve been looking for creative, cost-effective approaches to accomplish these exploration goals. This private sector-developed landing capability enables this delivery and focuses our investments accordingly – supporting American leadership in space and ensuring our long-term exploration is robust and affordable.”

The task order, called CS-7, has an award base to design the payload-specific accommodations and to demonstrate how Blue Origin’s flight design will off-load the rover to the lunar surface. There is an option on the contract to deliver and safely deploy the rover to the Moon’s surface. NASA will make the decision to exercise that option after the execution and review of the base task and of Blue Origin’s first flight of the Blue Moon MK1 lander. This unique approach will reduce the agency’s cost and technical risk. The rover has a targeted science window for its 100-day mission that requires a landing by late 2027.

Blue Origin is responsible for the complete landing mission architecture and will conduct design, analysis, and testing of a large lunar lander capable of safely delivering the lunar volatiles science rover to the Moon. Blue Origin also will handle end-to-end payload integration, planning and support, and post-landing payload deployment activities. NASA will conduct rover operations and science planning.

“The search for lunar volatiles plays a key role in NASA’s exploration of the Moon, with important implications for both science and human missions under Artemis,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters. “This delivery could show us where ice is most likely to be found and easiest to access, as a future resource for humans. And by studying these sources of lunar water, we also gain valuable insight into the distribution and origin of volatiles across the solar system, helping us better understand the processes that have shaped our space environment and how our inner solar system has evolved.”

Through CLPS, American companies continue to demonstrate leadership in commercial space advancing capabilities and accomplishing NASA’s goal for a commercial lunar economy. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley led the VIPER rover development and will lead its science investigations, and NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston provided rover engineering development for Ames.

To learn more about CLPS and Artemis, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/clps

-end-

Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov

Kenna Pell / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
kenna.m.pell@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov  

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Tiernan P. Doyle

NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Secures Critical Abort System Hardware for Artemis II

All the pieces are stacking up – literally – for NASA’s first crewed mission of the Artemis program coming in 2026.

Teams are finishing integration of the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II test flight with its launch abort system on Sept. 17 inside the Launch Abort System Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 44-foot-tall tower-like abort structure would swiftly carry the four-person crew inside Orion to safety in the unlikely event of an emergency during launch or ascent atop the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket.

Over the next few weeks, teams will complete remaining closeout activities before moving the spacecraft to its final stop before the launch pad: the agency’s Vehicle Assembly Building. There it will be added to the top of the rocket, before the finished stack is rolled out to the launch pad on its way to the Moon.

The abort system is comprised of three solid rocket motors: the jettison, attitude, and abort motors. In the case of an emergency, these motors work together to propel the astronauts inside Orion’s crew module to safety: the abort motor pulls the crew module away from the launch vehicle; the attitude control motor steers and orients the capsule; then the jettison motor ignites to separate the abort system from the crew module prior to parachute deployment. During a normal launch, Orion will shed the abort system and leave it behind once the crew is safely through the most dynamic part of ascent, leaving Orion thousands of pounds lighter for the rest of its journey.

Image credit: NASA/Frank Michaux

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Jason Costa

A Beacon to Space

In this infrared photograph taken on June 2, 2025, the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California, beams its eight-laser beacon to the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) flight laser transceiver aboard NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. At the time, when Psyche was about 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) from Earth.

Managed by JPL, DSOC successfully demonstrated that data encoded in laser photons could be reliably transmitted, received, and then decoded after traveling millions of miles from Earth out to Mars distances. Nearly two years after launching aboard the agency’s Psyche mission in 2023, the demonstration completed its 65th and final “pass” on Sept. 2, 2025, sending a laser signal to Psyche and receiving the return signal from 218 million miles (350 million kilometers) away.

Text credit: Ian J. O’Neill

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Monika Luabeya